Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-06-02
PRISON ESCAPES.


II transpired yesterday, notwithstand-
ing the overcautiousness Of Chief Skin
ner, that there had been jail break at
the City Prison on Friday night last.
The reason for this intense desire to
cover up the occurrence has not been
explained, for as far as the police are
concerned there was no motive Ior con-
cealment for any lack of duty on the
part of any Of the officers, who certainly
are not to blame because the prison is
not strong enough to hold even tramp
armed with rusty pie knife. This is
not the first time there has been break,
but the third, and it is only recently
that an attempt has been made to make
the prison secure. The first escape was
from the large cell at the extreme rear
of the prison. Here the bars, which had
been set in soft wood, were removed and
the prisoners had only to climb down the
wall to find themselves free. The sec-
ond escape was effected by tearing off
the tin roofing of cell No. 2. After ac-
complishing this the prisoners crept be-
tween the ceiling and the roof to sky
light where they broke the glass and
were in open air. Since that break
heavier ceilings have been placed in the
cells and they were considered to be
safer Than before. The occurrence of
Friday night shows that this was not
the case. The prisoners who were con-
fined in cell No. 2 at that time were
mostly what are called long timers and
after dark they piled up loose hunks in
the cell and by means of rusty pie knives
filed through thin, soft iron bar be-
meath the sky light. When this had
been accomplished, it was an easy mat
ter to bend the bar, crawl through,
break the window over head and gain
the root, from which place the descent to
the ground was en- easy matter. The
names of the escapes were P. Kenney,
who was sentenced to 100 days on
the 23d Of May; James Brooks,
who was sentenced to so days on the
same day; James Doe, Charles Clark,
James Murray and j. A. Wilson, who
were sentenced to 80 days on May 18th;
B. Clark, who was sentenced to 80 days
on March 9Th, and Morris Pendergast,
who was sentenced to $50 days on Feb.
ruary 10th. The first two were among
the assailants of officer Rulo. the four
next were old times tramps. B. Clark
was sentenced for beating an assistant
of the Health Officer while fumigating
man, and Pendergast, known as the
"Scorpion, was very tough character.
All were what is known as hard charac-
ters. There are but one or two cells in
the city prison in which it is safe to put
a man whom 1t is necessary to keep.
The rest are as unsafe as If constructed
of paper. and the means of communities
ton with the outside is almost direct.
They are so arranged that after dark
IL is impossible to tell whether the pris-
oners are all there or not, unless lights
are carried into them. On Friday
night they were as dark as
usual, and being SO far away
from the Prison-keeper's desk no sounds
were heard. The prisoners escaped
early that night, and IL was not discov-
cred until the next morning that they
had gone. The next day some OF them
were sean on the street, but, owing to
the mistaken reticence of the Chief, only
very few of the officers knew of the
escape, and as a consequence no arrests
were made. and the probability is that
they are all beyond reach now.